SHAMBHALA SUN SEPTEMBER 2013 53
5
THE MIND IS VERY WILD. The human experience is
full of unpredictability and paradox, joys and sorrows, suc-
cesses and failures. We can’t escape any of these experiences
in the vast terrain of our existence. It is part of what makes
life grand—and it is also why our minds take us on such a
crazy ride. If we can train ourselves through meditation to
be more open and more accepting toward the wild arc of our
experience, if we can lean into the difficulties of life and the
ride of our minds, we can become more settled and relaxed
amid whatever life brings us.
There are numerous ways to work with the mind. One
of the most effective is through the tool of sitting medita-
tion. Sitting meditation opens us to each and every moment
of our life. Each moment is totally unique and unknown.
Our mental world is seemingly predictable and graspable.
We believe that thinking through all the events and to-dos of
our life will provide us with ground and security. But it’s all
a fantasy, and this very moment, free of conceptual overlay,
is completely unique. It is absolutely unknown. We’ve never
experienced this very moment before, and the next moment
will not be the same as the one we are in now. Meditation
teaches us how to relate to life directly, so we can truly expe-
rience the present moment, free from conceptual overlay.
It’s a strange thing to do—sit there
and do basically nothing. Yet somehow
this simple act of stopping, says the
renowned American Buddhist teacher
PEMA CHÖDRÖN, is the best way
to cultivate our good qualities.
We do not meditate in order to be comfortable. In other
words, we don’t meditate in order to always, all the time, feel
good. I imagine shockwaves are passing through you as you
read this, because so many people come to meditation to sim-
ply “feel better.” However, the purpose of meditation is not to
feel bad, you’ll be glad to know. Rather, meditation gives us the
opportunity to have an open, compassionate attentiveness to
whatever is going on. The meditative space is like the big sky—
spacious, vast enough to accommodate anything that arises.
In meditation, our thoughts and emotions can become
like clouds that dwell and pass away. Good and comfortable,
pleasing and difficult and painful—all of this comes and
goes. So the essence of meditation is training in something
that is quite radical and definitely not the habitual pattern of
the species: and that is to stay with ourselves no matter what
is happening, without putting labels of good and bad, right
and wrong, pure and impure, on top of our experience.
If meditation was just about feeling good (and I think all
of us secretly hope that is what it’s about), we would often feel
like we must be doing it wrong. Because at times, meditation
can be such a difficult experience. A very common experi-
ence of the meditator, in a typical day or on a typical retreat, is
the experience of boredom, restlessness, a hurting back, pain
Reasons
to Meditate
PHOTOBYLIZAMATTHEWS